How to create Acronis Secure Zone on 4-partition disk ?!

I've just purchased and downloaded Acronis True Image 11 Home Edition yesterday, and tried to create a safe zone in my disk by using Acronis Secure Zone but.... unsuccessful. I've already read some of the threads here and then I realized the problem: my hard disk (160GB) is already divided into 4 partitions: [C] for Vista HomePre, [D] for Data and 2 hidden others for Laptop's Manufacturer Recovery.

So, are there any way to make a Secure Zone on my disk Plz help me solve this problem since I wanna use Startup Recovery and F11 to recover my system. Thanks a lot !

With the Secure zone on the same disk as your system, if your drive fails, you have no backups and no recovery. Likewise, if your backups are stored only on Drive D and your drive fails, your backup files are gone!

Perhaps you should consider getting an external hard drive. Store your backups there. Create an Acronis Rescue CD and you can always use this CD to access your previous backups (stored wherever) and your system restoration or drive replacement can occur from the Recovery CD. A secure zone is not needed in this example. Secure zones should not be placed on external drives either.

With the Secure zone on the same disk as your system, if your drive fails, you have no backups and no recovery. Perhaps you should consider getting an external hard drive. Store your backups there. Create an Acronis Rescue CD and you can always use this CD to access your previous backups (stored wherever) and your system restoration or drive replacement can occur from the Recovery CD. A secure zone is not needed in this example. Secure zones should not be placed on external drives either.

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Thanks for your answer !

Of course, I had an external drive and I can store my backup there, but... I'm afraid that: it (my external drive) could not be read or recognized when computer startup in DOS (USB ports are sometimes crazy and very slow). Thus, I wanna store the computer backup on its hard disk and the system can be able to recover from startup by using F11 key (same way as Laptop's Manufacturer Recovery with Alt+F10 to setup original Windows). It's also the reason why I need to create a Secure Zone: no need Rescue CD or sth like that to access my backup.

Please be aware that there can only be 4 primary or 3 primary and one extended partitions on a drive. Thus, there is no way to create Acronis Secure Zone on a drive which already has 4 primary partitions.
Please notice that, as Groverh pointed, in your case it might be better to use Acronis Bootable Rescue Media. Notice that Acronis Bootable Rescue Media (full version) uses the exact same environment as Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. You can boot using the Acronis Bootable Rescue Media at any time to see if it successfully recognizes your hardware. Should you encounter any problems, please feel free to submit a request for technical support or post any of them on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

You can find the detailed instructions on how to use Acronis True Image 11 Home in the respective User's Guide.

See my post #2 above. You need to have your backup sets stored in multiple places. Defragging your C drive will not affect you backup files if stored on Drive D.

Whether you store on Drive D or a secure zone, you still need to have backup sets accessible on other external drives. Remember, if the drive that holds your backup sets fail, the backups are gone. You need more security than storing on only one disk!

(my external drive) sometimes could not be read or recognized when computer startup in DOS.

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Are you saying that your external drive is not visible when booting into the Recovery CD Full Version which is Linux? When you mention DOS, I am interpreting that you are using the Safe Version--or am I mis-understanding?

Check out the thread "Secure Zone & Startup Recovery Manager" found in the Useful Forum Threads link below. This provides a good description of its features (both good and no so good) .

About "DOS", I just use this word to describe the Startup state of my computer... I mean... before Windows Vista started. I don't use Linux or... DOS anymore ! Sometimes, my external drive is not visible when booting into the Recovery CD Full Version... and sometimes, very slow.

And about the defragment, I usually defrag all of my partition... so... I worried that my backup files will be affected ! Is that true, or.... I'm wrong ?!

linus:
linux is the OS that ATI uses when doing a restore, which is why folks have been mentioning it.

Defragging:
Defragging large files, like image backups is a very (very very) slow process and usually buys virtually nothing in terms of performance. If you defrag, say, an 8GB file that's in 20 fragments, then use the file to do a restore, it will maybe shave a few nanoseconds off the 10-20 minute restore time.

Still, you can defrag drives with backup/image files on them if your defragger allows you to exclude files -- for example, Perfect Disk allows you to specify fiels or directories to excluded from defragging.

If you do that, you won't have to mess with an SZ, which modifies your master boot record on your hard disk.

linus:
linux is the OS that ATI uses when doing a restore, which is why folks have been mentioning it.

Defragging:
Defragging large files, like image backups is a very (very very) slow process and usually buys virtually nothing in terms of performance. If you defrag, say, an 8GB file that's in 20 fragments, then use the file to do a restore, it will maybe shave a few nanoseconds off the 10-20 minute restore time.

Still, you can defrag drives with backup/image files on them if your defragger allows you to exclude files -- for example, Perfect Disk allows you to specify fiels or directories to excluded from defragging.

If you do that, you won't have to mess with an SZ, which modifies your master boot record on your hard disk.

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As a long term user of a secure zone on a secondary disk this is news to me.
I have only found that the MBR is modified if one activates the Acronis Start up recovery manager. This effect is easily reversed if that is required.

Defragging large files, like image backups is a very (very very) slow process and usually buys virtually nothing in terms of performance. If you defrag, say, an 8GB file that's in 20 fragments, then use the file to do a restore, it will maybe shave a few nanoseconds off the 10-20 minute restore time.

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My disk have only 2 partitions to store OS (C) and data (D), so I defrag the whole disk, not only the backup files

shieber said:

Still, you can defrag drives with backup/image files on them if your defragger allows you to exclude files -- for example, Perfect Disk allows you to specify fiels or directories to excluded from defragging.

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Windows Vista has its own Defragment Tools and I don't wanna use any others software to do that task. But, if the defragment process can cause a damage for backup files, maybe I'll try your recommend software (Perfect Disk). So, in conclusion, Windows Defragment will affect badly to Acronis Backup Files ?!

Xpilot said:

As a long term user of a secure zone on a secondary disk this is news to me.
I have only found that the MBR is modified if one activates the Acronis Start up recovery manager. This effect is easily reversed if that is required.